U.S. patent application number 09/049257 was filed with the patent office on 2001-08-09 for dynamic virtual paging method and apparatus.
Invention is credited to GILLILAND, DAVID E., STORMS, WILLIAM M., THOMPSON, PAULETTE A..
Application Number | 20010011945 09/049257 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 21958872 |
Filed Date | 2001-08-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010011945 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
GILLILAND, DAVID E. ; et
al. |
August 9, 2001 |
DYNAMIC VIRTUAL PAGING METHOD AND APPARATUS
Abstract
A caller (11) may communicate a message to a predetermined group
of paging devices (14.sub.1-14.sub.m) by entering a virtual
Personal Identification Number associated with that group of
devices, rather than a single actual device. Upon its receipt, a
paging system (10) determines whether the caller-entered PIN
constitutes a virtual PIN, and if so, then determines the paging
devices within the associated group by accessing a database (28)
containing such information. Once the predetermined group of paging
devices is identified, the paging system communicates a
caller-entered message thereto.
Inventors: |
GILLILAND, DAVID E.;
(LEAWOOD, KS) ; STORMS, WILLIAM M.; (KANSAS CITY,
MO) ; THOMPSON, PAULETTE A.; (KANSAS CITY,
MO) |
Correspondence
Address: |
S. H. DWORETSKY
AT&T CORPORATION
POST OFFICE BOX 4110
MIDDLETOWN
NJ
07748
|
Family ID: |
21958872 |
Appl. No.: |
09/049257 |
Filed: |
March 27, 1998 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
340/7.46 ;
340/5.74 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W 88/185
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
340/7.46 ;
340/5.74 |
International
Class: |
G08B 005/22 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for communicating a caller-entered message to a
predetermined group of paging devices in response to caller-entered
Personal Identification Number (PIN), comprising the steps of:
receiving the caller-entered PIN and message; accessing a database
in response to the caller-entered PIN to determine whether the
caller-entered PIN is a virtual PIN, and if so, then identifying
the group of individual paging devices associated with the virtual
PIN; and communicating the caller-entered message to the group of
individual paging devices associated with the virtual PIN.
2. The method according to claim 1 including the step of
dynamically modifying the database to alter the group of individual
paging devices associated with the virtual PIN.
3. The method according to claim 2 wherein additional paging
devices are added to the group of individual paging devices
associated with the virtual PIN.
4. The method according to claim 2 wherein paging devices are
deleted from to the group of individual paging devices associated
with the virtual PIN.
5. The method according to claim 2 wherein at least one paging
device is substituted for another within the group of individual
paging devices associated with the virtual PIN.
6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of accessing
the database to determine whether the caller-entered PIN is a
virtual PIN comprises the step of determining whether the
caller-entered PIN has a particular number of digits.
7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of accessing
the database to determine whether the caller-entered PIN is a
virtual PIN comprises the step of determining whether the
caller-entered PIN includes at least one special character.
8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of accessing
the database to determine whether the caller-entered PIN is a
virtual PIN comprises the step of determining whether the
caller-entered PIN has is within a predetermined numeric range.
9. Apparatus for communicating a caller-entered message to a
predetermined group of paging devices in response to a
caller-entered Personal Identification Number (PIN), comprising:
means for receiving the caller-entered PIN and message; a database
containing list of virtual PINs and for each virtual PIN, a list of
PINS of associated paging devices; means responsive to the
caller-entered PIN for accessing the datebase to determine whether
the caller-entered PIN is a virtual PIN, and if so, the PINs of the
paging devices associated with the caller-entered PIN; and means
for communicating the caller-entered message to the group of
individual paging devices associated with the virtual PIN.
10. The apparatus according to claim 9 wherein said means for
receiving the caller-entered PIN and message includes a DTMF
recognition circuit.
11. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the means for
receiving the caller-entered PIN and message includes a speech
recognition circuit.
12. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein means for receiving
the caller-entered PIN and message includes an interface for
receiving signals from a terminal.
13. The apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the means for
accessing the database comprises a processor.
14. The apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the means for
communicating the caller-entered message comprises a transmitter.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] This invention relates to a technique for communicating a
message to a predetermined group of paging devices in response to a
caller-entered Personal Identification Number (PIN).
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] Notwithstanding the proliferation of cellular and PCS
telephones, paging remains a popular method to communicate a
message. In practice, a party seeking to communicate a message to a
pager-equipped subscriber does so by dialing a telephone number,
typically an 800 or 888 toll-free number of the paging services
provider serving the subscriber. Upon receipt of such a call, the
paging services provider prompts the caller to enter a Personal
Identification Number (PIN) that identifies the subscriber. The
caller then enters the PIN, either by entering the corresponding
Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals via the key pad on the
telephone set, or by speaking the digits of the subscriber's PIN
for conversion into corresponding electrical signals. After
receiving the PIN, the paging services provider prompts the caller
to enter a numeric message, or in some instances, an alphanumeric
message. Upon its receipt, the paging service transmits the
caller-entered message to the subscriber for receipt on his/her
pager.
[0003] In some instances, a caller may wish to communicate a
message to a plurality of separate subscribers, each carrying a
pager assigned an individual PIN. Presently, to communicate a
message to each subscriber, the caller must separately enter the
subscriber's PIN and numeric message, a very cumbersome process.
Yet, another drawback associated with present day paging services
is the requirement that within a particular organization, a
subscriber may need to carry separate paging devices for separate
functions. For example, an organization responsible for different
maintenance functions may have separate paging devices assigned for
each function. Thus, when different individuals must perform a
particular maintenance function, they must exchange paging devices,
an inconvenience to say the least.
[0004] Thus, there is need for a dynamic paging technique that is
not subject to the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior
art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] Briefly, the present invention provides a technique for
communicating a caller-entered message to a predetermined group of
paging devices in response to a caller-entered PIN. In accordance
with the invention, a caller seeking to communicate a message to a
predetermined group of paging devices does so by entering a PIN and
a message to a paging system, typically by entering a DTMF signal,
or combination of such signals, or a spoken command, or via an
electronic signal, such as via e-mail. In response to the PIN from
the caller, the paging system accesses a data base to determine if
the entered PIN constitutes a Virtual Personal Identification
Number (PIN), and if so, which actual paging devices personal
identification numbers are associated with the Virtual PIN. The
paging system then communicates the caller-entered message to each
paging device associated with the Virtual PIN.
[0006] The technique of the invention affords the ability to signal
a predetermined group of paging devices in response to a single
caller-entered PIN. Moreover, the technique affords the opportunity
to dynamically alter the predetermined group of paging devices by
modifying the database to change the list of pages corresponding to
the caller-entered virtual PIN.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0007] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a paging system for
practicing the technique of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0008] FIG. 1 illustrates a paging system 10, in accordance with a
preferred embodiment of the invention for enabling a caller 11,
using either a voice telephone set 12 or a computer/terminal 13 to
communicate a message to predetermined group of paging devices
14.sub.1-14.sub.m (where m is a integer). The paging system 10
includes a Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency recognition circuit 16
connected to a Public Switched Telecommunications Network (PSTN)
for receiving a telephone call from the caller 11 initiated through
the telephone set 12. The DTMF recognition circuit 16 typically
comprises a Voice Response Unit (VRU), such as the CONVERSANT.TM.
VRU manufactured by Lucent Technologies, Inc., that has the
capability of prompting the caller with a voice announcement to
enter DTMF signals through the telephone set 12, and the capability
to recognize such caller-entered DTMF signals.
[0009] In the illustrated embodiment, the paging system 10 also
includes a speech recognition circuit 18 for receiving and
interpreting spoken commands entered by the caller 11 and for
translating such spoken commands into electrical signals. In
practice, the speech recognizer circuit 18 is coupled to the DTMF
recognition circuit 16 for processing spoken commands originally
received from the called party. Typically, the voice prompt made by
the DTMF recognition circuit 16 to the caller 11 requests that the
caller enter the appropriate PIN number of the pager to be signaled
by either pressing the appropriate touch pad digits on the
telephone set 12 or by speaking the PIN. Should the caller speak
the PIN rather than enter the corresponding string of DTMF signals,
the DTMF recognition circuit 16 passes the spoken command to the
speech recognition circuit 18 for processing.
[0010] Rather than enter a request through the telephone set 12,
the caller could make his/her page request through the computer
terminal 13 via an electronic signal, such as email or the like.
The paging system 10 typically receives the page request from the
terminal 13 at an interface 20 connected to the terminal through a
data network 22. The terminal 13 may enjoy a direct connection with
the network 22 or may connect to the network 22 through a dial-up
connection via the PSTN 18.
[0011] The paging system 10 includes a processor 24 coupled to the
DTMF recognition circuit 16, the speech recognition circuit 18 and
the interface 20 for receiving a page request from the caller 11
entered via the telephone set 12 or via the terminal 13. In the
past, the page request entered by the caller constituted a "real"
PIN, corresponding to the actual identification number of a single
paging device associated with the particular subscriber the caller
sought to signal, together with a numeric or alphanumeric message
for that single subscriber. In response to that caller-entered PIN,
the processor 24 causes a transmitter 26 to broadcast the
caller-entered message to the particular subscriber whose PIN the
caller entered. Thus, to send the same message to a plurality of
different subscribers, the caller previously had to separately
enter each subscriber's PIN, a cumbersome process.
[0012] In accordance with the invention, the paging system 10
affords the caller 11 the capability of communicating a message to
a predetermined group of the paging devices 14.sub.1-14.sub.m, such
as the paging devices 14.sub.1-14.sub.3, for example, by enabling
the caller to enter a "virtual" PIN corresponding to that group of
devices. Such a virtual PIN does not correspond to any actual pager
PIN. Rather, the virtual PIN represents a label or cross-reference
to an entry in a database 28 that identifies a predetermined group
of paging devices. The database 28 is connected to the processor
24. Upon receipt of the caller-entered PIN, the processor 24
accesses the database to determine whether the caller-entered PIN
constitutes a virtual PIN or not. If, after accessing the database
28, the processor 24 determines that the caller initiated page
request constitutes a "real" PIN, (i.e., the actual PIN of one of
the paging devices 14.sub.1-14.sub.m), then the processor 24 causes
the transmitter 26 to transmit a caller-entered message to the
individual paging device identified by the caller-entered-entered
PIN.
[0013] Now assume the caller 11 enters a virtual PIN. (In practice,
a virtual PIN differs from an actual PIN, either by a different
number of digits, a special character, such as "*", or by a
different numeric range, as compared to that of an actual PIN.)
Upon receiving the caller-entered PIN, the processor 24 accesses
the database 28 as before. A virtual PIN causes the database 28 to
return to the processor 24 the actual pager PINs associated with
such a virtual PIN. Thereafter, the processor 24 causes the
transmitter to broadcast a caller-entered message to those paging
devices whose PINs are associated with the caller-entered virtual
PIN. Depending on the capability of the transmitter 26, the
messages are either sent serially, or simultaneously.
[0014] The paging technique of the invention advantageously affords
the ability to dynamically alter the actual PINs associated with
each virtual PIN as desired. Typically, an individual, such as the
caller 11, initially establishes a virtual PIN and associated list
of corresponding actual paging device PINs by entering this
information into the data base 28, either directly through the
telephone 12 or the terminal 13, or via a request to the operator
of the paging system 10 who would make such an entry in the
database. As circumstances change, the caller 11 could modify the
actual paging device PINs associated with a virtual PIN by adding,
deleting and/or substituting one or more actual paging device PINs
from the list associated with a virtual PIN. Thus, in an
organization where different individuals have a variety of tasks
that change on a dynamic basis, each individual need not exchange
pagers when assigned different tasks. Rather, each task will have
an associated virtual PIN, and the actual paging device PINs
assigned to that virtual PIN will vary, depending on the
individuals available for the particular task.
[0015] The foregoing discloses a technique for enabling a caller to
communicate a message to a predetermined group of paging devices
(14.sub.1-14.sub.m) in response to the entry of a single virtual
PIN.
[0016] It is to be understood that the above-described embodiments
are merely illustrative of the principles of the invention. Various
modifications and changes may be made thereto by those skilled in
the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall
within the spirit and scope thereof.
* * * * *